PLX IAT Gauge - Monitor IAT's

Sticky, I know you love content so I'll spare you the trouble

Meth and FMIC are about to go on. I wanted to compare IAT's to stock intercooler and on/off methanol. Anyone not keeping an eye on this is the same person that tunes their car without a boost gauge. I'd like to see visible results actively. Since there is very little information about this and without having access to the BMS tuning gauge being that I'm a procede user, I figured I'd go out and be the first vocal test dummy. This is good information regardless of what tune you run and honestly I'd rather have a standalone gauge/sensor than relying off the slow IAT data from the DME. I've read too many threads about, "I have meth but I can't tell?!". I just can't understand how I personally could run this type of injection without being able to ACTIVELY see whats going on with it. Flow rate #1 and IAT drop #2. If I could monitor octane you know I'd have a gauge for that too. I've purchased an ATi ePod gauge and a methanol flow gauge so I will have pretty much all the important data accessible to me in little 52mm gauges. If anyone has a red labonte gauge for sale let me know, they are constantly sold out.

This IAT gauge will allow me to monitor my stock IAT's and get a really good idea of the heat soak and efficiency of this stock intercooler without having to log constantly. I can just look down and see where I'm at. I'm positive the accuracy is much better than the stock IAT sensor as well as it being able to update much quicker for more precise gauge display data. I'll be installing my new FMIC here shortly so it will give me a great idea of where I stand... Something that most people really don't know, they just assume so.

I'm also going to be tapping for methanol into my charge pipe and have some interesting things going on in that department as well. here are some pics of the IAT gauge.

This is the actual PLX module that must be used to interface with the sensor and gauge. Its a little proprietary box that actually is daisy chain-able and runs a network of data instead of being a data sender it has a communication network. Similar to the CANbus network. Two wires but lots of stuff going on.

This 4 pin molex type connector is actually the power for the IAT gauge, however its also a switch. Since the gauge and module operate on a network, the ground can be obtained from the daisy chain serial wires. This connector only has one connected wire for 3.3v power to the gauge, and the other wire is to the ground. If the ground is connected with a supplied terminal, then it displays in C* and if its left unplugged(default) then its F*.

The serial TX/RX plugs are obvious for the network. The TX goes out to the gauge RX and the gauge has a spare TX wire in case you want to connect another modules RX to it to continue adding sensors or gauges of different types like EGT, Boost etc.

And the K-Type is for the IAT sensor that is going to be welded onto my charge pipe.

This is the actual Sensor:

These are the wires that come out of the gauge. As you can see the 4 pin connector has the ground wire disconnected. If you connect it, it will display in Celsius instead of Fahrenheit. The other two wires are for receiving temp data from the module and the other wire is un-used unless you have another gauge to connect to the PLX network.

And the gauge itself:

Full shot of the gauge:

Wiring kit:

I will be doing more with my car once I get my downpipes and midpipes installed. Once I receive my methanol flow gauge(which I can't find available anywhere) then I'll take my charge pipe into get it welded with meth/IAT bungs as well as modified to fit my new greddy type R bov. More updates as they come with vids.

nice read-through klispe, but im a bit confused. do you just want a large gauge for easy reading? wont the procede be able to display this content(and much more)in the dash or on the BMW-PSW? sure the gauge will probably be more accurate on variable change but i think im going to wait to see how the procede handles the new monitoring system.

I won't be doing a DIY. I just do pictures of the products, maybe anything I feel that may be important or troublesome and the finished product.

Originally Posted by oddjob2021

nice read-through klispe, but im a bit confused. do you just want a large gauge for easy reading? wont the procede be able to display this content(and much more)in the dash or on the BMW-PSW? sure the gauge will probably be more accurate on variable change but i think im going to wait to see how the procede handles the new monitoring system.

I want a stand alone IAT gauge/display that doesn't update slowly. The procede will rely on the DME for IAT updates which I'm told aren't very quick. The display on the dash will be small, and the peripheral vision will pick up the little dot on the gauge which will give me an idea where my temps are without ever looking down. The dash will require that I actually take the time to look down, and with sub-par vision, not a good thing to do while under boost.

Originally Posted by LostMarine

Looks good.. will be nice to see info from you using that and the upgraded turbo's

I think it will be nice to see stock vs aftermarket fmic and stock vs fmic + meth figures. I will see if I can run meth at stage 1 levels just to compare the cooling differences. I'm sure i'll see dramatic results and I'll do a dyno log, my car is wired for my netbook. I'm thinking about doing the bluetooth wireless for the logging also.